Hesjedal believes he can challenge at Giro

Canadian cyclist Ryder Hesjedal feels he can get back into contention at the Giro d’Italia despite losing precious seconds after one of his most challenging days at the three-week race.

The defending champion said he had no choice but to concede time at one point during the wet and hilly ninth stage from San Sepolcro to Florence on Sunday. Hesjedal, now over three minutes off the lead in 11th place overall, remains confident he can make up some time and rejoin the front-runners.

“You have to believe it,” Hesjedal said Monday from Cordenons, Italy. “You can’t decide that it’s too much because then you’re out of the race already. If you look at what’s happened in the race so far, anything can happen. There are so many variables on the road, things can change completely in one moment.

“So by no means does being three minutes down right now make you throw the towel in.”

The Garmin Sharp rider from Victoria is chasing overall leader Vincenzo Nibali of Italy, who has a 29-second lead on Australia’s Cadel Evans. Robert Gesink of the Netherlands is 1:15 back in third.

Hesjedal, who was third overall just three days ago, was sixth heading into Sunday’s stage.

He said he felt fine during the day but his fatigued muscles from the long week became a factor for one moment during a rather explosive climb. Hesjedal couldn’t get the necessary power out of his legs and it proved costly.

“I had to just ride my own tempo and the last climb finished with I think about seven or eight (kilometres) mostly downhill to the line and I had one teammate with me, riding against 40 guys pushing the race,” he said. “You have no choice but to concede time at that point. Again, it could have been worse but in the end it was only a minute for one bad moment. So that’s it.”

Hesjedal is looking forward to today’s 167-kilometre 10th stage through the mountains from Cordenons to Altopiano del Montasio.